Maduro is taking the gloves off against his opposition

Venezuela's President
Nicolas Maduro speaks during a meeting with supporters at
Miraflores Palace in Caracas, February 19, 2015.REUTERS/Carlos Garcia
Rawlins

Venezuela has reached a point where dissent of any kind will no
longer be tolerated, and over the past week reports of masked men
abducting opposition political leaders have started to leak out
of the country.

This is no small thing. Until this point Venezuela's ruling
regime has flirted with autocracy, but hasn't embraced it
outright.

During the reign of late-president Hugo Chavez opposition parties
were starved of media attention but were still allowed to exist.
His death, however, left his successor Nicolas Maduro, with
little legitimacy and an economy on the bring of collapse.

And what little Maduro had left started sliding along with oil
prices. The commodity makes up 95% of Venezuela's exports and the
revenue from its sale is desperately needed to balance an
already-bloated budget.

As is the situation is dire. Venezuela's inflation rate is over
60% and hundreds wait in the line for days (sometimes) to buy
basic goods and groceries at astronomical prices. A box of
condoms costs as much as an iPhone in the US.

Enter the masked men. Last week
they took jailed opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez, from his cell
in the middle of the night. According to his wife, Lilian
Tintori, they destroyed his belongings and moved him into
solitary confinement with no running water.Human
Rights Watch confirmed the incident, which is believed to be in retaliation
for Tintori's visit to the US.

"It is as outrageous as it is shocking that President Maduro is
punishing Leopoldo for his wife having met Vice President Biden,"
said Lopez's international council, Jared Genser. "The fact
that a dozen masked men raided Leopoldo's cell, destroyed its
contents, and moved him into an isolation cell, without any
judicial order or legal authority, only reaffirms the lawlessness
of the Venezuelan State."

Lilian Tintori (L) wife of
jailed opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, and former president
Andres Pastrana (C) from Colombia are stop by national guards
outside the military prison of Ramo Verde outside Caracas January
25, 2015.Reuters

Days later, about 30 masked men took Leopoldo to a high security
military prison. This after he did a half hour interview with CNN
Espanol.

If Maduro's regime wishes to regain legitimacy, it must right the
country's economic ship. Unfortunately that's politically
unfeasible for him. To do that, the regime would have to allow
the bolivar to devalue dramatically, raise domestic gas prices,
and do away with price controls. All of these measures go against
Chavez's legacy, and the narrative Maduro has been putting forth
since he took office.